Stating that no other state government has waived crop loans worth Rs 31,000 crore in a single installment, Telangana Chief Minister Revanth Reddy has directed party MPs to tom-tom the Congress government’s welfare initiative for farmers in the Parliament which was guaranteed by Rahul Gandhi, even while seeking a national debate on the issue.

The chief minister who is also the PCC president directed Congress leaders and activists to celebrate the announcement of crop loan waiver by conducting bike rallies across the state and MLAs to hold programmes in their constituencies in celebration.

The chief minister today addressed a meeting with party MLAs, MLCs, MPs and other senior party functionaries at Praja Bhavan and outlined the three phases in which his government will waive crop loans up to Rs 2 lakh.

In the first phase, loans up to Rs one lakh will be waived at 4 pm tomorrow with the state government depositing Rs 7,000 crores in the accounts of farmers. By the end of July loans up to Rs 1.5 lakh will be waived followed by a complete waiver of loans up to Rs 2 lakh by the middle of August.

Explaining this timeline Reddy reminded party leaders about the commitment made by Rahul Gandhi two years back during the Warangal Declaration for farmers before the Assembly elections which included the promise of loan waiver.

He said that it was the responsibility of the Congress government to honour the pledge made by Gandhi at Warangal. He also highlighted the achievement of the Congress government in the backdrop of the failure of the BRS government led by K Chandrasekhar Rao who failed to waive Rs28,000 crores of loans taken by farmers despite ruling the state for ten long years.

He admitted “Financial experts have expressed concern over the feasibility of loan waiver which might lead to financial strain for the government.

However, we are committed to realising the promises made by the Gandhi family,” said the chief minister. He also mentioned that in the past seven months the Congress government has spent a total of Rs30,000 crore on welfare. He asked party leaders to explain the good work done by the government to the people.